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Hang-glider factory? Bug depository? School? Bay Area property listed for $3.1M has had many lives

Emily Landes

Updated
4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Much of the home is currently used as a dance school.

Much of the home is currently used as a dance school.

Photo: Coldwell Banker

Photo: Coldwell Banker

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Much of the home is currently used as a dance school.

Much of the home is currently used as a dance school.

Photo: Coldwell Banker

Hang-glider factory? Bug depository? School? Bay Area property listed for $3.1M has had many lives

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Built 114 years ago as a grammar school, 496 Sixth St. in Montara has led a storied existence. It's been a rare insect repository, a hang-glider factory, a home for a family of nine, a wedding venue and, most recently, a dance school. The nearly 10,000-square-foot building on an enormous lot 45 minutes south of San Francisco is now on the market for the first time since 1995 and asking $3.1 million.

"There is something really special about coming across a property with such rich history," said Sue Mahlstedt, one of the listing agents on the property. "The residence itself offers ample space to live, work and entertain, but the 40,000 square foot lot—comprised of eight lots at 5,000 square feet each—allows for further development."

The property has been in some stage of reinvention almost since day one. Only a few years after it opened as the Montara Grammar School, a fire caused extensive damage to the property and it had to be reconstructed.

The school was housed in the newly rebuilt building until the early 1950s, when it was sold to amateur entomologist Owen Bryant. He was attracted to the home because it had room for his massive collection of bugs and was close to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, where he went regularly to discuss all things insect.

An associate from the academy came to visit Bryant and his wife, Lucy, in the old school house and he recalled that the couple simply pushed their king-size bed up against the blackboard in one of the classrooms to turn it into their bedroom.

Most of the rest of home was dedicated to housing Bryant's nearly 200,000 bugs. (He had a special affection for beetles and donated upwards of 40,000 to the academy.) Bryant died in 1958; his wife preceded him a year earlier. Upon his death he donated the unique home and the entirety of his bug collection to the academy.

The scientific institution kept the creepy-crawlies but sold the house to the Fuller family, a couple with seven children, who made the property more of a true home than the Bryants. They added touches like a brick fireplace, plus new floors and windows, and converted several classrooms on the second floor into bedrooms, a living room and a second kitchen. (There is a catering kitchen on the ground floor as well.) When their many children were grown the family later rented out the property to a hang-glider company, and also offered it as a special event space for weddings and community events.

Much of the home still maintained its school-like qualities, including a large auditorium with an elevated stage, when the Fullers decided to sell in 1995. That made the property appealing to its current owner, Susan Hayward, who used the home as a dance school and residence ever since. In fact, the dance school is still advertising a summer camp there for this year.

The fact that camp is still on may be an acknowledgment that it will likely take a little bit of time, and a very special buyer, to figure out what 496 Sixth St. will become next.

Emily Landes is a writer and editor who is obsessed with all things real estate.